The mission consists of an embassy, a number of Swedes from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and local staff.

Already in 1903 Sweden started at the King's initiative diplomatic relations with what was then the Ottoman Empire and a Swedish consulate was established.

The Office serve as a link between authorities and people in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad.

[2] In February 1960, Sweden's envoy in Baghdad, Dick Hichens-Bergström, was appointed ambassador there following an agreement with the Iraqi government regarding diplomatic representation.

[6] From 1966, the embassy was located at Kharrada Sharkiya 127 Z/1 and the chancellery at Nidhal Street 132/2, Saadoun.

He had instructions from the Swedish Foreign Ministry to evacuate the embassy as soon as the UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar departed.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry telecom and communications expert Stig "Lina" Lindström and ambassador Amnéus closed the embassy and drove on Monday 14 January through northern Iraq and across the border to Turkey.

There were also a smaller house containing backup power, storage, and also home of the guards.

[10] The Swedish embassy was highly acclaimed in the Swedish press at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, when it was abandoned by all but one man, the caretaker Ibrahim Ali Suza who had worked there for 35 years and refused to leave the building.

The same thing happened when Iraq invaded Kuwait in the early 1990s and all left the embassy except the Iraqi Kurd who stayed and kept watch for looters and with the help of a number of Kalashnikovs and grenades.

This was to serve as a fulcrum during construction and then used as a branch of the embassy to enable it to operate outside as well as inside the IZ when required.

[23][24] The convention's article 22 states in part that the host country "is under a special duty to [...] protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage".

[26] Sweden's ambassador to Iraq was expelled from the country as a result of the diplomatic dispute.